Mark Heine - March 24, 2019
A God Exposed
Fig leaves sewn together to make clothes could not cover their sin. So after doling out the consequences of their sins, God proceeded to cover their sin and shame with clothing wrought from the skin of an animal. But animals don’t doff their skins willingly or easily. An animal stripped of its skin, exposed to a nakedness deeper than mere skin, is not long for this world. In the same way, the Lamb of God, the enfleshed God, was first mockingly clothed at the hands of men intent on abusing and shaming Him. They first pressed a crown of thorns into His head and draped a purple garment around Him, intending to mock His claim to be the King. Then, when they took Him to crucify Him, they stripped Him naked and hung Him shamefully on the cross, exposed and soon to die. But He has no shame because He has no sin. He has no shame because He has no self-care, no thoughts of self-preservation. His nakedness is for mankind who, even while clothed, are covered in shame. He was clothed in our nakedness and shame, our sin and guilt, so that He might clothe us with the robe of His own righteousness.
From Series: "Behold the Man"
Pilate’s command to the crowd at Jesus’ crucifixion speaks an incredible truth—Jesus was indeed man. More specifically, He was God and man, an eternal being inhabiting a human body. Jesus had a body. He had a nose. Knees. Toes. Bones. Fingerprints. He hungered, prayed, and bled. He had a mother, He drank wine, He was baptized. This Lenten season, behold the man—the man who suffered, died, and rose again. The man who lived a perfect life and defeated death. The man whose death led to your life.